Amazing Low-key VFX Breakdown!
726Loki is a spin-off TV series that was basically created because Marvel fans loved Tom Hiddleston's Loki and wanted more. Like the music in this video?
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As with any TV series or movie in the Marvel Universe or indeed any universe involving superpowers, VFX was a necessity, and multiple VFX houses were called into work on the series, Rise, Luma Pictures, ILM, FuseFX, Trixter, Rodeo FX, Method Studios, Cantina Creative, Crafty Apes, and Digital Domain all worked together to provide the 2524 VFX shots needed for the series.
Time Theater.
The Time Stage hologram was designed to follow the Time Variance Authority's "Retro" aesthetic. The time stage theater itself was a physical set and the time stage visualizations were influenced by its design. For the time stage in motion, the VFX team was told to look at schools of fish or flocks of birds, like the murmuration of starlings. Using this information as a reference they evolved the motion of a comprehensive particle system in Houdini and actually coded rotational and spatial properties of quaternion mathematics into the system, once they had the complex motion dynamics of the hologram they then added self-illuminating, refractive, and translucent qualities, the tricky part was getting it all to work together along with the footage from Avengers: Endgame.
Timekeepers.
The Timekeepers are actually 100% CG and all three are based on vocal performance from a single actor, Jonathan Majors, who is also the actor who plays "He Who Remains" in the final episode. No motion capture was used and all three timekeepers were hand-animated. The idea was for them to be lizard-like but still humanoid, similar to how they appear in the comics, Digital sculptors created a 3d maquette then they added texture, making the skin look cold and wet like that of a reptile and giving the fabric properties similar to scaly skin.
Lamentis.
Working, as always, with reference material provided by marvel, the VFX team created CG assets and 2.5D matte paintings for the moonscape. For the actual city of Shuroo, because each structure was so unique, they ended up building most of the city by hand using LIDAR data given to them by production.
The journey to Shuroo was shot on a backlot on a set that was basically sand and bluescreens and although Digital Domain knew that every hillside, structure, and vehicle would have to be built digitally, they ended up having to recreate almost everything from the original plates too, because of blue light spill from the bluescreens on the sand.
The Void.
The void is endless rolling grassy landscape, the live-action plates were shot on stage with the ground covered in grass, this set was scanned and a digital version of the set was built, this meant that they would have exactly the same ground terrain for their set extensions no matter what scene they shot. In order to reach the void the person or object needed to be "Pruned" this "Pruning" effect was created by FuseFX but the portal that opens in the void was created by ILM. The Void is packed full of vehicles, people, and objects that the TVA deems a threat to the sacred timeline so ILM actually had some fun with this, placing some humorous objects that you may not have noticed the first time you watched the episode, like a prototype for a nuclear-powered tank built by Chrysler in the 50s, The Stark Tower with the Qeng Logo or the Thanos-copter.
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Loki Alligator, Alioth, and Miss Minutes.
For Loki alligator, ILM had to first find reference material and photographs of an American alligator that was roughly the same size as the blue plushy one used on set, once they had this they could then sculpt, texture, and color the asset, however, once they had it looking good under normal light, they found the color correction for the sequence was predominantly blue and this canceled out the yellow coloring and left Loki alligator looking black and virtually textureless so the team had to pre-grade Loki alligator's textures to compensate for these color changes.
The Citadel at The End of Time
Trixter had the incredible job of creating the Citadel at the End of Time and coming up with the entire back story of why it was placed at the back of the universe. The idea was that the double black holes focused light into the ring that represents the sacred timeline and the citadel was at the back of the universe because it's where you'd be furthest away from the big bang and therefore could witness the creation of the universe in full.
Just like every episode in the Loki series, this last one also has a few easter eggs that are hidden in this specific sequence. So try scrubbing through it and let us know what you find in the comments.
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